Every once in a while I engage in an experiment. One that has failed miserably is the aging of some mid-late '90s Gallo of Sonoma Single Vineyard Cabs. In the last year or two I have opened multiple bottles of the '97 Barelli and Frei Cabs to universal disgust.

Last night it was the '97 Gallo of Sonoma Frei Ranch Cabernet Sauvignon that was fatally oxidized (orange at the rim), and smelling/tasting of nothing so much as rotting leaves and stewed fruit. Since this has been pretty universal I chalk it up to wine that couldn't age, but perhaps it was cooked somewhere. I don't know.

So I then opened the 2001 Chateaux Kirwan (Margaux). I was immediately assaulted by a huge dose of dar roast coffee. Initially dismayed I let the glass sit for an hour. Returning to it the coffee has toned down, and red and black cherry emerged with good minerality and still some very toasted oak on the finish. There's a lot of fruit here, but I don't know if it will ever totally integrate the oak. I will leave my other bottles for several years and hope.

Talk less, smile more. Don't let them know what you're against or what you're for.

A dear and very elderly friend of mine in So Cal had a bunch of Gallo 97 cabs in his wine fridge. He got it in his head that I loved the wine (this is not a geek type one can be honest with about such things) and so he saved what was probably 6 or 8 bottles but felt like three cases such was my misery at having to drink them. The oxidation started showing fairly early.

My wine shopping and I have never had a problem. Just a perpetual race between the bankruptcy court and Hell.--Rogov

David M. Bueker wrote:So I then opened the 2001 Chateaux Kirwan (Margaux). I was immediately assaulted by a huge dose of dar roast coffee. Initially dismayed I let the glass sit for an hour. Returning to it the coffee has toned down, and red and black cherry emerged with good minerality and still some very toasted oak on the finish. There's a lot of fruit here, but I don't know if it will ever totally integrate the oak. I will leave my other bottles for several years and hope.

David,
Should I infer from this that the roasted coffee aspect of the wine is attributable to oak? I haven't had that particular experience much (if at all) so I hadn't realized that oak was the source of it. Toastiness, yes; vanilla and spice, of course. Or perhaps I'm more tolerant of coffee flavors than you are.

Mark Lipton
(currently finishing my cup of Peet's New Guinea as I type)

Interesting. I've had much better luck with a few 97 Gallo's - mostly notably the Stefani Vineyard. However, it's been a year or more since the last time I opened one. I think I have one more Stefani left so I'll open it and see how it compares.

Doug

If God didn't want me to eat animals, why did He make them out of meat?